Published in 1990 under the title Los mitos del tlacuache, this is the first major theoretical study of Mesoamerican mythology by one of the foremost scholars of Aztec ideology. Using the myth cycle of the opossum and the theft of fire from the gods as a touchstone, Lopez Austin constructs a definition of myth that pertains to all of Mesoamerican culture, challenging the notion that to be relevant such studies must occur within a specific culture. Shown here is that much of modern mythology has ancient roots, despite syncretism with Christianity, and can be used to elucidate the pre-Columbian world view. Analysis of pre-Columbian myths can also be used to understand current indigenous myths. Subtopics include the hero and his place in the Mesoamerican pantheon, divine space and human space, mythic event clusters, myth as truth, and the fusion of myth and history. This book presents a unique description of the Mesoamerican world view for students of comparative religion, history of religion, folklore, ethnology, and anthropology.

The Myths of the Opossum: Pathways of Mesoamerican Mythology

Religion & Spirituality

López Austin, Alfredo

Other Religions, Practices & Sacred Texts

Univ of New Mexico Pr

Two mysterious misty places existed in the world vision of the Aztecs-Tamoanchan and Tlalocan. Though they are considered important cosmological places, references to them in Aztec mythology are obscure. Myths about Tamoanchan describe it as the place where all beings in the world originated. Tlalocan, it was said, was a terrestrial paradise located inside a perpetually green and beautiful mountain that was the destination of humans who died by drowning, lightning, or disease. Historians have attempted to understand and clarify the significance of these two places since the sixteenth century. Today, most students of Aztec religion try to locate them in the cosmic scheme in order to better understand Mesoamerican religious thought, but the written sources on these two places are difficult to understand. In Tamoanchan, Tlalocan, Alfredo Lopez Austin presents new interpretations of Aztec mythology based on written historical sources, iconographic sources, and the beliefs of modern Indians.

Tamoanchan, Tlalocan: Places of Mist (Mesoamerican Worlds)

History

Americas

Univ Pr of Colorado

The Rabbit on the Face of the Moon is a collection of articles on mythology in the Mesoamerican tradition by Alfredo Lopez Austin, one of the foremost scholars of ancient Mesoamerican thought. Their span is diverse: myths and names, eclipses, stars, left and right, Mexica origins, Aztec incantations, animals, and the incorporation of Christian elements into the living mythologies of Mexico. The title essay relates the Mesoamerican myth explaining why there is a rabbit on the moon's face to a Buddhist image and suggests the importance of the profound mythical concepts presented by each image.The eighteen pieces in this volume are unified by their basis in Mesoamerican tradition and provide a fascinating look into a system of milennia-old legends and beliefs.

Rabbit On The Face Of The Moon

University of Utah Press

Eighteen essays provide an accessible, entertaining look into a system of millennia-old legends and beliefs.
Mythology is one of the great creations of humankind. It forms the core of sacred books and reflects the deepest preoccupations of human beings, their most intimate secrets, their glories, and their infamies.
In 1990, Alfredo López Austin, one of the foremost scholars of ancient Mesoamerican thought, began a series of essays about mythology in the Mesoamerican tradition, published in México Indígena. Although his articles were written for general readers, they were also intended to engage specialists. They span a divers subject matter: myths and names, eclipses, stars, left and right, Méxican origins, Aztec incantations, animals, and the incorporation of Christian elements into the living mythologies of Mexico. The title essay relates the Mesoamerican myth explaining why there is a rabbit o the moon’s face to a Buddhist image and suggests the importance of the profound mythical concepts presented by each image.
The eighteen essays in this volume are unified by their basis in Mesoamerican tradition and provide an accessible, entertaining look into a system of millennia-old legends and beliefs.

The Rabbit on the Face of the Moon: Mythology in the Mesoamerican Tradition

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Análisis de antiguas fuentes documentales y pictográficas, que deslindan el Tamoanchan mítico con el de las poblaciones que los creyentes fundaron sobre la Tierra como réplicas del arquetipo cósmico. Para develar el secreto de Tlalocan, el autor ofrece un estudio de las creencias actuales de tres grupos indígenas pertenecientes a la tradición mesoamericana.

Tamoanchan y Tlalocan (Antropologia) (Spanish Edition)

FONDO DE CULTURA ECONOMICA*

Cuerpo humano e ideologia: Las concepciones de los antiguos nahuas I (Etnologia/historia Serie Antropologica 39) (Spanish Edition)

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas

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